2015 Audi s3 - sedan - gas guzzler

[gsaltan]

Hi everyone,

I have had my 2015 Audi S3 (sedan) for only 2000 km. Typically, my commute is about 7-8 km one way, so I fill up about once a month. I am driving this car at the most economical way - acceleration and deceleration all smooth - no hard brakes. I am driving this monster like a grandma (it is a shame). Yet my average consumption is 12.6 lt/100 km. This is way above the rated fuel consumption for all city driving. Yet a good portion of my drive is on the highway and the city I live in is small, hence no traffic jams, etc.

I don't know what your experience is, but I find it very very high and I am confident this car cannot be driven any more cautiously than I do. Is this something that can change? Car shows very high consumption, upwards of 20 lt/100 km, during small gears. It starts to get reasonable at the 5th and 6th gear. One time I managed to get 11.4 lt/100km out of a tank, and it was 50-60% highway driving.

I would appreciate any comments.

[B3NN3TT]

Very short commutes like yours don't allow the engine to reach Normal Operating Temperature, and engines use a lot more fuel when they aren't up to temp.

[Draigflag]

That does seem very poor. The A3 is popular choice here, sells mostly with the 2.0 TDI unit which is pretty efficient (same engine you guys have in the Jetta etc)

I would echo the comment above but also add that the car is quite new, so is still breaking in somewhat and it may take a while before you get good economy. Avoid short urban journeys as much as you can, remember walking is a good option too!

[Charon]

If it an automatic transmission, the computer may not let it shift into its higher gears until the engine warms up.

[luv2spd]

Multiple short trips usually kill the fuel consumption for any car. I usually wait about 10 seconds after I turn on my car to idle until the rpm drops and I know the car is ok to drive. The 2015 S3s on this site get around 11L/100km which is fairly close to yours. During my commute to work (20km) I usually have the average fuel consumption monitored and in the first few kilometers it gets 15.8 and when I get to work it goes down to 11.5 L/100km; if I traveled only 7-8kms my fuel consumption would be a lot higher than 11.5. Congrats on the new purchase, I hear only good things about the new S3.

[Draigflag]

There are around S3's on fuelly, compare with them. By the looks of things, they all seem to be a bit on the thirsty side. The S3 is obviously one of the performance models designed for speed. As I mentioned before, if economy was more of a priority I would have opted for the diesel unit.

[NickZee]

I drive my new BMW 640i through heavy peak hour traffic in Melbourne and get low 11s doing 9km each way. I have 3,500km on it. Just keep at it, anticipating always, a looser engine will help in a few months time.

[litesong]

Originally Posted by gsaltan

Yet my average consumption is 12.6 lt/100 km. This is way above the rated fuel consumption for all city driving. Yet a good portion of my drive is on the highway and the city I live in is small, hence no traffic jams, etc.

Late to this thread, but check your spark plug gaps. On a Chevy Cruze forum once, various drivers complained about low mpg. One fellow checked his spark plugs, found the gap way too small, set them to spec, & his mpg went way up. Others on the forum found their gaps too small, corrected them to spec AND THEIR MPG WENT WAY UP. At the time I set forth a theory, that Cruze production had gone way up, & new hires, under time pressure, were installing the plugs, without proper gap checking. I had also surmised that spark plugs were gapped at the spark plug factory properly, but the sparkplugs may have been shipped to Chevy with their electrodes in the down position, which the trip shaking may have narrowed many sets of sparkplugs.